[looks at the ball, bounces it, it doesn't bounce very well. Puts some air in it]

Aliens have invaded! Not from space, but from time. They're refugees from a civilization of superintelligent marsupials* from an alternate universe where placental mammals never happened. They invented a sideways-in-time machine calibrated in past dates, that let you select a past event and visit the universe where it happened differently. This group were descendents of an unpopular historical figure and fled to an unimaginably distant universe because of a horrible accident in the universe where he was never born. It's all messy and convoluted and I'm not going to overthink it because it's backstory.

Anyway, you got hold of one of the machines. It's portable, like a mobile phone, but it's busted... you can't set it to any date past 1771 because the chronosynclastic restabilizer can't deal with the presence of the Encyclopedia Britannica. What historical event before that date do you set it to change, why, and what does the resulting universe look like?

* They don't look like big-headed kangaroos. They look kind of like horse-eared lemurs with stubby bright-red rabbit-tails and narrow tongues that snake out between their pointy front teeth when they talk. And they have two prehensile thumbs on each hand.

Ours, it's always relative to the universe you're currently in. It's not like Mr. Smellie created an Encyclopedia Britannica in their universe. Oh, and you can read the controls because 4chan crowd-sourced an English language pack for it.

Hmmm... I think I would like travel back to the big bang. But I don't want to change anything, I just want to look at it. The problem would be that there is no space to be for looking at it. Means I need to travel out of our universe to watch it from the outside. Not sure if this a valid answer to the setting, but that is what I would like to see.

And I am pretty sure that I would also not be able to change anything, becouse that would lead to a time paradoxon because I would create a complete different universe (if any at all) where I would not be in for sure, unabling me to travel back to change anything resulting in the previous universe with me in traveling back to change something, etc. In my opinion the timeline protects itself from being changed.

_________________If life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila.

Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:04 am

Hlaoroo

E-Quoll to Any Challenge!

Joined: Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:09 amPosts: 8305Location: Down Under

Re: Questions to make you think...

I don't think I'd change anything. If there's one thing I learned from Back To The Future, Doctor Who, The Time Machine, The Time Traveller's Wife and every other sci-fi book or movie ever written/made that deals with time travel it's that even the smallest, most inconsequential thing may have huge and unpredictable impacts which could ultimately end up in my demise.So I don't think I'd risk changing anything.

You don't get to go back in time. You just pick an alternate universe that already exists where some event happened differently. Like, our universe already existed before the lemursupials crossed over to the one where placental mammals weren't wiped out by the eruption of Rlyeh.

You can't go to the world where Hitler dies in 1935 and England is the last hold-out against Soviet Europe, but you can go to the world where Richard the Lionhearted survives the Siege of Chaluz and the Anglo-French and the Polish Empires are the world's superpowers, or where Caesar survived his assassination attempt and the Romans bred an immortal humanity over the next thousand years....

I'd pack up all my technology and visit the alternate universe where 1776 has electronics, technology that can stop aging (when it's at a high cost, of course), and a power grid.

I could just live all the way back to 2013~ By then they should have built a one-way universal teleporter. Then I could go in and send myself to the day that I left- I get the experience from living over 200 years without actually aging at all

I'd go to a universe where Da Vinci abandoned his painting to pursue his scientific and in particular his engineering research. This happened some time around 1476-1478. In todays world the technology is not only far superior due to the extent of Da Vinci's research but also very different to anything which we would recognise in our world. being much more remniscent of Da Vinci's original designs. There are a lot more water-powered technologies and people are much fitter (and less obese) due to so many other devices being people-powered. Many household objects are much more ergonomic thanks to Da Vinci's detailed studies of anatomy. Electricity has not really caught on for much more than lighting, cooking and heating since the technologies based on Da Vinci's designs have become so refined, efficient and effective, and all electricity that is used comes from water pumps designed using Da Vinci's hydraulic studies. The air is fresh and clean - since there is no need to burn fossil fuels there is very little pollution. Since life has become so easy, people have much more free time in which to pursue their interests - this leads to a more contented and peaceful population - there have been no wars since England defeated the Spanish Armada with some of Da Vinci's war machines. The machines make life easy; since there is no struggle to access resources, there is no need for fighting anyway. Freedom of thought and freedom of expression are encouraged as is interest in the creative arts. There are still rulers however their role is now reduced to resource management and dispute settlement. The rulers are elected democratically and anyone who wishes to run for the position may do so.

You know something? I think I will actually acquire a SIT-machine and move to that universe!

I go to an alternate universe where sid vicious never died. The sex pistols never broke up and as a result they mobilized the dis-enfranchised youth of the world to create a new society based on the ideals of the early punk movement. I would then sit down with president rotten for tea and discuss how to implement the institutions in our world and return ready to become the emporer of a more egalitarian, accepting world where it is illegal for any local music venue not to have at least one show a night.

_________________I think in Non-sequiturs

"Many a peacock hides his tail from every eye—and calls it his pride."-A dude that's smarter than me

I might also go to a universe where the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs actually missed Earth. Humans have learned to domesticate dinosaurs instead of dogs; they use the carnivourous ones for hunting, the big strong ones for pulling and lifting, the fast ones for riding, and the slow ones for eating. Dinosaurs have infiltrated virtually every aspect of life and most technology developed has gone to facilitate their use. We have also bred seperate breeds of dinosaurs for specific purposes. Those with long, strong spines make good busses, for example, whilst those with big claws and paws make good excavators. The only problem is those pesky T-rexes which have grown to plague proportions and whose arms are now of a useable length. Schools have T-Rex drills in the same way they have fire/tornado/lockdown/earthquake drills.For the most part though, life is good since having the dinosaurs to do everythign for you makes things easy.

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